The University of Michigan’s Edward Henry Kraus Natural Sciences Building will get a substantial makeover, as the Board of Regents approved plans Thursday to renovate and add to the 101-year-old structure.
The $120 million project calls for a deep renovation of the building’s existing 183,000-square-foot building, plus a 62,000-square-foot infill addition within an exterior courtyard.
Completed in 1915, the Kraus Building currently houses the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology as well as the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology. In 2018, both of those departments will be relocated to the Biological Science Building, which is currently under construction.
Ideas for the Kraus Building project began to take shape several years ago as plans for the new Biological Science Building were coming together.
The renovation and addition of Kraus will enable the School of Kinesiology to consolidate its programs and operations currently in the School of Kinesiology Building — the Central Campus Recreation Building — and other leased space into one location inside Kraus. That location will be large enough to allow for the school’s future growth.
The project will include architectural, electrical and mechanical work and will provide an average of 124 on-site construction jobs.
Approval of the project included the appointment of Ballinger Architecture and Engineering for its design. Funding will be provided by the Office of the Provost resources.
The building’s namesake, Edward Henry Kraus, served as a professor of minerology, dean of the summer session, and dean of the College of Pharmacy from 1923-33, before serving as the dean of LSA from 1933-45.
